Steam & Excursion > QJ Fun in the Sun (and rain)

Today (Saturday), the Iowa Interstate brought the QJ steam locomotive 6988 down to Chillicothe, IL to run 5 excursion trains. My dad and I were able to get to town before the first train left town at 9am, with the rest of the excursions running at 1.5 hour intervals. The train was supposed to run from Chillicothe to Henry IL, but neither of the first two runs went that far north. We had great sun for the morning two runs, with pretty good sized railfan crowds. All 5 train trips were sold out, so the coaches were packed full. Shortly before the noon train left town, a storm front rolled in, with heavy clouds, wind, and heavy rain. We were able to catch a break in the rain to catch the train, but after that, we decided to call it a day; the sun was clearly done shining for quite a while.

I was able to grab some video of the train at various points during our chase for the first three trips. I'll have some photos in a thread tomorrow to share. The steam crew was running with two different whistles on the 6988, so listen for the difference!

Great job by the steam crew on a fun day, with lots of smiling faces!
  -Caleb

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Really enjoyed the video!

Nicely done.   Ashame they don't get out more often.    What is the heritage of the coaches?  Almost look like Pennsy P70s.

Tominde Wrote:
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> Nicely done.   Ashame they don't get out more
> often.    What is the heritage of the
> coaches?  Almost look like Pennsy P70s.

They are indeed Pennsy P70s purchased from the Austin Steam Train Association.

Actually, the locomotive was carrying THREE whistles the entire extended weekend.  The locomotive's original Chinese whistle and a second whistle I understand to be from Guatemala were mounted toward the back of the boiler by the safety valves, with a third whistle next to the stack.  That third whistle was changed at least three times.  At one time or another, reproduction Southern and Illinois Central whistles and what to me sounded like a Santa Fe chime whistle were mounted there.  Most of the whistle swapping seemed to have been done on Sunday.  I'll post a video with every whistle that was used.

The Southern repo is heard here in the shots with the steam engine leading, and the Guatemalan whistle is heard in the diesel led scene.

Your second shot is where I was later splashing around like a duck in a puddle to shoot the rain swollen creek.  

Good job!

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/19 04:52 by MaryMcPherson.

Nice video! That boxcar was bouncin' all over the place - maybe needs some weight added to it (like a couple pallet loads of fishing line weights :) )
 

Ah! Subdiv 3's track really looks great!

NICE !!!!!

qman

MaryMcPherson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually, the locomotive was carrying THREE
> whistles the entire extended weekend.  The
> locomotive's original Chinese whistle and a second
> whistle I understand to be from Guatemala were
> mounted toward the back of the boiler by the
> safety valves, with a third whistle next to the
> stack.  That third whistle was changed at least
> three times.  At one time or another,
> reproduction Southern and Illinois Central
> whistles and what to me sounded like a Santa Fe
> chime whistle were mounted there.  Most of the
> whistle swapping seemed to have been done on
> Sunday.  I'll post a video with every whistle
> that was used.
>
> The Southern repo is heard here in the shots with
> the steam engine leading, and the Guatemalan
> whistle is heard in the diesel led scene.
>
> Your second shot is where I was later splashing
> around like a duck in a puddle to shoot the rain
> swollen creek.  
>
> Good job!

There were a lot of people on Facebook saying that there was a Grand Trunk Western whistle put on the locomotive, sounded like it might have been a U4b or maybe a U3 class whistle. It was liked so much by people and the crews that it remained on the locomotive for its deadhead run back home.